Some shooters use a bag limit as a measure of success of a hunt. I call them shooters not hunters. To them, less than a full limit is a failure. They miss 99% of the reason to hunt. Not to keep score or prove you are the best killer but to live for a short time in a world that is outside your normal existance. Not so much back to nature but more to me trying to see the world from another viewpoint or try to do what does not come easy.
We all have some type of self imposed limits. Some only shoot drakes. Some only shoot one species or will never shoot at one species. Some shoot only one or two birds. Some only hunt one ot two days a year. What ever make you feel that you are getting more out of the huint by limiting the hunt is fine with me.
Luring a lone Black Duck into a spread of decoys, getting a family of Canadian Geese to lock up wings and glide for half a mile just to land less than a hundred feet from where you are hiding, or just getting a fish to bite your fly, when it really could care less about it, that is the challenge. That and getting your son or daughter to understand why you do it the hard way and then get them to try to pass it along to their kids.
Some of the best hunts that I have had, never had a shot fired. I limited out on life's memories. You keep score your way and I will do it mine. But if you have never seen the look on a Black Duck, when he has landed into your decoys and then realises that he has screwed up and is dead meat, then make a desperate flight to get away, never knowing that you would rather let him live another day with just the hope to do it again, you have never limited out in my book.
